Eureka Theatre
3941 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19104
3941 Market Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19104
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Additional Info
Architects: Horace William Castor, George R. Stearns
Firms: Harris & Richards, Stearns & Castor
Styles: Baroque
Previous Names: Fine Arts Theatre
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Located on Market Street at 40th Street. The Eureka Theatre was opened in 1913 and was designed by architectural firm Harris & Richards. It had a large arched entrance in white terra-cotta, and contained small decoration reliefs of mother & child. In 1922 it was equipped with a Moeller 2 manual 7 ranks organ. In February 1952 it was renamed Fine Arts Theatre screening foreign movies, but this was not a success and it closed on September 8, 1952. It reopened as the Eureka Theatre in February 1953. It was closed in the 1950’s and became a furniture store. It was demolished in the 1970’s and a high-rise which is now University Square retirement home was built on the site.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
In 1915, The Architectural Record published this article about movie theaters, which included both a photo and a floor plan of the Eureka Theatre, as well as Stearns & Castor’s earlier Victoria Theatre (scroll up from the article title to see the photo of the Eureka, down to see the other illustrations.)
The Eureka is visible at the top right of this picture from 1949. This was during construction of a subway tunnel to replace the elevated in this area.
This page says that the Eureka was converted into a furniture store in the 1950s and gives its address as 3941 Market Street.
The Eureka’s name was changed to the Fine Arts in April 1952 and the theater adopted a foreign film policy. Apparently this was not successful as advertising for the house stopped in September. The theater was open again in February 1953 (probably four-walled) as a venue for the “sex hygiene” picture “Street Corner.”
Harris & Richards were the original architects who designed the $25,000, 900-seat Eureka Theatre for Eureka Amusement in 1913. It had a brief run beginning in February of 1952 as the Fine Arts Theatre until September 8, 1952. It had some additional bookings as the Eureka closing at the end of a second, 20-year lease and auctioned off. It became a retail furniture store in 1954.